


What’s Better Than This?

by stellarfluid



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/F, aerith can get a little frustrated as a treat, tifa always saves the day, yuffie is a baby lesbian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:06:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28146564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarfluid/pseuds/stellarfluid
Summary: Just gals being pals!Alternatively: No one realizes that Aerith and Tifa are dating. Aerith has just about had it, but Tifa always knows what to do.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart
Kudos: 43
Collections: 2020 FF7 Secret Santa





	What’s Better Than This?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [reisling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reisling/gifts).



> hi and merry christmas!!! i love aerti w all my heart but its been a while since ive written them so i was super excited to do it again :) i hope you have a great day, and thanks for reading!
> 
> (its been a while since ive played ff7, so i apologize if anyone is ooc!)

The first time it happened, it was Yuffie. It was an innocent and sweet comment, despite the ignorance tied into it Actually, the ignorance might have added to the charm.

“I wish I had a friendship like your guys’!” she had said to Aerith and Tifa, who had been dating for, well… a while. They had been together since not long after they met. Quite a while now. 

Aerith couldn’t help but snort out a laugh as a response, shoving her hands over her mouth to stop the sound from becoming more than that, trying to at least remain a  _ little _ polite. Tifa frowned a bit, tilting her head to the side. “Friendship?”

“Well, yeah!” Yuffie said. “You’re so close! Always holding hands and stuff! I want to have a friendship like that. You two are  _ so  _ lucky.” Tifa pursed her lips. Aerith just couldn’t take it anymore.

“We are  _ not _ friends,” she said, keeping the laughter that still threatened to bubble out stuffed deep in her chest.

“What?!” Yuffie was aghast. Aerith couldn’t hold it anymore; she burst into a fit of laughter. Yuffie looked absolutely horrified, so Tifa swooped in for the rescue.

“We’re girlfriends, Yuffie,” Tifa said. 

This did not make it any better.

“You’re  _ what?!”  _ She looked like her world had been flipped upside-down. “You… GIRLFRIENDS!? You mean… you’re… are you DATING?! CAN GIRLS EVEN DO THAT WITH EACH OTHER?!” 

Aerith was laughing so hard she was about to keel over. Tifa tried her best to remain calm so she didn’t start laughing, herself. Yuffie had surely been a bit sheltered as a child, with the political conflict going on with her hometown and Midgar when she was growing up. Also, she was only sixteen. It was only natural that she didn’t know much about the world. 

“Yes, Yuffie,” Tifa explained patiently. “Girls can date each other. Boys can date each other, too.”

Yuffie blinked, utterly flabbergasted, and completely speechless, which was not something Tifa thought was possible. Finally, she spoke: “You mean I could have been dating girls this entire time?!” And then: “YOU MEAN I  _ DON’T  _ HAVE TO DATE A BOY?!”

Tifa wasn’t sure how to answer that question, with Yuffie being a literal princess and all. For all she knew, her father might end up trying to arrange her a marriage in order to produce an heir. Still, Tifa said, “Yeah, you can date girls instead of boys!”

“THANK FUCKING GOD,” Yuffie said, which somehow made Aerith laugh even harder. Eventually, she sunk to the ground and buried her face in her hands, sounding more like she was sobbing than laughing now.

Tifa had a feeling that this journey of theirs was going to be a  _ long  _ trip. 

* * *

She had been right, of course. It had happened at the Gold Saucer as well. They had ditched the others moments after getting there, hand-in-hand and giggling in excitement. 

“Our first real date!” Aerith had cheered, and it made Tifa feel all fluttery inside, and she gripped Aerith’s hand a little tighter in her joy. 

“I’ve been waiting for this,” she told Aerith, smiling at her. And Aerith smiled back, and her face glowed like sunshine through open windows on a warm day, filled with so much kindness and love — maybe even  _ adoration —  _ that it made Tifa’s heart grow a couple of sizes too big for her ribcage. 

They made their way through the Gold Saucer with child-like wonder, trying out as many games and attractions as they could. Aerith took it upon herself to start winning prizes for Tifa from every single game booth they passed, and for a while was incredibly successful, winning Tifa a moogle, tomberry, and a cactuar plushie. It wasn’t until they got to the one with the stacked bottles that were obviously glued together you were supposed to try and knock down that Aerith was bested. 

The game was obviously rigged, both girls noticed. Aerith wasn’t very happy about it — “I mean, they make you pay money for a game you can’t even win! That’s gotta be some sort of, like, injustice, right?!” — and Tifa decided she should probably do something before Aerith cast some sort of spell on the poor vendor. Instead, she asked Aerith for the final ball she was allowed to throw. Already fed up, she gave Tifa the ball easily. 

Tifa hit the ball against the palm of her hand a couple of times as she mentally calculated the force at which she needed to throw in order to accomplish her plan. Once she had a good idea, she took her position, reeled back her throwing arm back before throwing the ball so hard that it shattered the bottles at the base of the tower, causing the whole thing to topple over. Aerith hooted in joy and Tifa wiped her hands of the whole ordeal and asked the shocked vendor for the big plushie in the back of the stall, and he gave it to her without any reluctance. Their collection was now a moogle, a tomberry, a cactuar, and the biggest, fattest chocobo plushie either of them had ever seen. Tifa ended up handing the prizes Aerith won back to her, so Tifa herself could lug her own massive prize around.

Now content with their new plushie family, Aerith was ready for the main attraction — the ferris wheel. Aerith approached the stall and, shifting her new children into one arm, dug into her jacket pocket for the handful gil she then placed on the counter.

“Two for the ferris wheel, please!”

The young lady at the counter smiled at them. “That’s quite the haul!” she remarked, smiling at all the creatures Aerith and Tifa had collected. “You two seem like you’re having a great time.”

“We are!” Aerith beamed with a nod, turning to flash a grin at Tifa. “Right, babe?”

“Yes,” Tifa laughed in agreement, “we’re definitely having a lot fun.”

“Plus, it’s our first time alone together in  _ ages,  _ so finally getting some time to ourselves has been making it better,” Aerith adds. “We’ve been having to put up with the men for  _ far  _ too long, so we were in need of a night out.”

“Oh, yeah, men can be  _ so _ monopolizing sometimes,” the lady said, handing Aerith their tickets. “My last boyfriend  _ never _ let me hang out with my friends. I hope yours aren’t  _ that  _ bad!”

Aerith’s lips drew into a fine line. Tifa said to the lady, “Oh, no, we don’t really have to deal with that. We just work with a lot of men, is all. Today was our first day off in a while.”

“Oh, I see! Sorry for assuming. I get it though! We all need a night out with the girls now and again, right?” Tifa just nodded, smiling politely. “Well,” the lady continued, oblivious, “hope the rest of your night is fun! Enjoy your ride!”

As they took their seats in the ferris wheel, Aerith asked, “Could we have made it  _ any more obvious  _ that we’re on a date?”

Tifa sighed, more endeared with Aerith than anything else. “I guess we could have,” she said.

(“Where are you even going to put those things?” Cloud asked them later. “We don’t have a permanent living situation, so there’s nowhere for you to leave them…” 

Maybe they should have thought ahead.)

* * *

It happened another time in Cosmo Canyon. 

“So… you want a double room?” the innkeeper asked them.

“No,” Aerith said for probably the fourth time, and Tifa was surprised that she was actually holding it together this time, as opposed to laughing in the innkeeper’s face. “A couple’s room, please. We’re— we’re together. Us two.” She waved her arms between herself and Tifa. “You know,” she said, when the innkeeper continued to show no signs of understanding, “ _ together.”  _

“Yes, I’ve gathered that you’ve come here together, but…”

“That’s not—“ Aerith cut herself off, sighed, and flashed a smile, and anyone other than Tifa would see it as the beautiful, cheerful, kind smile that Aerith normally gave to the people around them. But Tifa herself could see the annoyance hidden in Aerith’s eyes, and this time, it was her turn to smother a laugh. “Oh,” Aerith said instead, “I realized I’ve been unclear. That guy back there—“ she pointed her thumb at Cloud, who looked exasperated as he remained stuck in a conversation with the very avid Yuffie, as well as Barret, who was laughing his ass off, and Nanaki, sitting at Cloud’s feet, looking… confused, more than anything, and Cait Sith definitely listening in, but blending in with the plushies that Aerith very stubbornly brought with them —“is my boyfriend. I need a room for us, and then two double rooms for the rest of them.” (Nanaki got a bed, too.)

“Ohhh!” the innkeeper said, “I see! I apologize for the confusion. Yes, we have rooms available for you. The cost would be…”

After she finished with the innkeeper, Aerith marched over to Cloud. “I ended up paying for all the rooms myself. You owe me. I’ll tell you the cost later. I’m gonna take a nap with my _ literal girlfriend.”  _ And then she marched off.

Cloud gave Tifa a bewildered look, and Tifa finally let out that laugh she was holding in, leaning in to whisper, “The innkeeper didn’t understand the concept of lesbianism.”

* * *

That night, as Tifa was beginning to doze off cradled in her girlfriend's gentle arms, she heard — and felt — Aerith sigh. Tifa lifted her head at the motion, peering at Aerith with sleepy eyes.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, bringing an arm from around Aerith’s waist to cup Aerith’s cheek.

Aerith huffed a bit. “Am I being overdramatic?” she asked. Tifa hummed in question, cocking her head to the side, and Aerith sighed again. “You know. About the fact that no one can tell we’re dating. I mean, yeah, it’s hard to actually go on  _ dates  _ when you’re trying to save the whole entire  _ Planet  _ but… I feel like it should be obvious. I mean, we’re attached at the hip. We’re always holding hands. Remember that time we literally kissed in public and some girl said, ‘I wish I was comfortable enough to do that with my friends!’? Like…  _ hello?!” _

Tifa laughed, recalling the event. “Yeah, that was a little… yeah. I really don’t think you’re being overdramatic at all.”

“Really? Because… you never seem to get upset, so I was worried…”

Tifa sighed, and shifted so she could hoist her upper body up and better look Aerith in the eye.

“Oh, it definitely bothers me sometimes,” she admitted. “But I guess… in the end it doesn’t really matter, I think.” She smiled down at her beautiful girlfriend, who lay slightly below her, pouting angrily and crossing her arms. “Of course I want people to know that I’m in a relationship with the most beautiful girl on the whole Planet—” Aerith stopped pouting in order to giggle “—but… you know. I think, to me, the most important thing is that you know how much I love you. Like, it's fine that other people don’t know we’re in love, because  _ we  _ know, you know? This relationship is ours, not theirs.”

Aerith looked at Tifa a moment, then smiled. “Yeah,” she said, “yeah, you’re right. And you  _ do  _ know how much I love you, right?”

Tifa chuckled. “I do,” she said, “but maybe you should tell me again, just in case.”

Aerith laughed, and tugged Tifa down into a kiss. “I love you  _ so much,” _ she said, then kissed Tifa again.

“Mm, I love you more,” Tifa said.

“Oh! You think so? Is that a challenge, Ms. Lockhart?” 

“Maybe it is, but not for now! Go to sleep!”

Aerith kissed Tifa’s face a couple of more times, before sighing and settling under the covers, cradling Tifa in her arms again.

As Tifa lay in Aerith’s gentle embrace, sleep blanketing the two of them in a comfortable silence, she wondered: what could be better than this?


End file.
